Tag: strength

  • Embrace Your Quirks

    The true secret to success is being yourself – your true authentic self, full of strengths, weakness and quirks.

    We all gladly embrace our strengths.  We love to show them off.  But we should also be proud of our weaknesses and quirks because through them we find real strength.

    Embracing our weaknesses and quirks demonstrates confidence.  Declaring them out in the open makes us strong.

    We are taught our weaknesses and quirks are something we should be ashamed of so we try to hide them.  That makes us vulnerable and insecure.  We are afraid of being found out. But when we put them out there – no one can hold anything over us – there is nothing left to expose.  We have freedom.

    For example, I can do many things as well as a man.  I like to cycle and I like it when I pass men with big calves.  It makes me feel good.

    But don’t ask me to throw a ball.  I throw like a girl.  No, actually a 6 year old girl throws a ball better than me.  When I was in middle school and we tried for the Presidential Fitness award, I was the top girl in all of the physical tests except for throwing the softball.  I didn’t get the Presidential Fitness award because I couldn’t throw a freaking ball.

    I can make business decisions and solve problems all day long.  But don’t ask me where to eat.  My mind literally goes blank and all I can say is “I dunno know.”  On weekends I get dressed to go out to eat but then drive around in circles because I can’t decide where to go.  I wind up going home to eat.  Now that’s a quirk!

    And I cannot tell left and right.  All through elementary school I put my left hand, then my right hand then my left hand over my heart for the pledge of allegiance.  My family knows that if I am driving and they tell me to turn left or right, they have to point.  Ironically I can do izquierda y derecha  (Spanish) with no problem.  Weird huh?

    Laugh at me.  It’s funny. And I’m not embarrassed.  It is who I am.

    At work when we share our little quirks with each other we find out that each of has a peculiarity to laugh at ourselves about.  We discover that we can help each other deal with our quirks and it feels good to help them.  My colleagues learned that when they ask me to go to lunch, I would reply “Sure, where are we going?”  I would go anywhere and eat anything as long as I didn’t have to decide.

    Our quirks are what make us real, authentic and unique.  They show we are human.  So embrace them and share them.

    Empowered Women Embrace Who They Are, Quirks and All

     

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  • In A Crisis, Why Women Need To Take Charge

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    www.123rf – 54332571

    I built my career being the person who turned around failing operations and projects.  My jobs were really hard work and extremely stressful.  It wasn’t until I wrote my article on men and work hours that I really started questioning why I (and the other women in the office) stayed in there and kept working while the men eventually gave up and left.  In my article I wrote that men have a limit on the number of hours they really work and the amount of stress they could handle.

    After doing a little research I learned that my experiences reflect how men and women handle stress differently. (more…)

  • The Cult of True Womanhood

    Did you ever wonder where all this “women are weak, timid and lack self-confidence” stuff came from?  We often think of the 1950’s and the visions of the idealistic stay at home mother in her apron and pearls but it actually goes back to the period from 1820 – 1860.  This was an age when the Cult of True Womanhood thrived. (more…)

  • Values – Women’s Source of Empowerment

    I read another one of those articles on a post from the Harvard Business Review stating that women often don’t get what they want or deserve because they don’t ask for it.  Does anyone else feel like me after I read these types of articles – here’s another thing I’m doing wrong.  Here’s another article that makes it sound like women aren’t cut out for the business world.

    But who decides what is and isn’t right?

    I read all this stuff about what I am supposed to do and get the impression that when I go to work I am supposed to be all about Me.  Me, Me, Me, Me, Me.  But those aren’t my values – being all about Me, isn’t Me. (more…)

  • Estrogen-Rich Environment

    I worked in an office where we expanded to occuppy two floors.  It just so happened that when we split the office the first floor was occuppied by men and one woman.  Likewise, the second floor was occupied by women and one man.

    I found some humor in this – finally, in the testosterone rich company environment, there was a space where estrogen dominated!  So, I made a sign and put it up at the top of each stairwell and at the 2nd floor elevator exit. (more…)